HiPHILA

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

TAIWAN, Fishes of Taiwan Postage Stamps (I) - March 10, 2011


The native freshwater fish of Taiwan’s rivers, lakes, and estuaries comprise the most diverse group of vertebrates within the island’s terrestrial ecosystem. Chunghwa Post has planned a series of postage stamps to introduce the beauty of Taiwan’s freshwater fishes. The first set of the series features Taiwan endemic fishes: Candidia barbatus, Opsariichthys pachycephalus, Spinibarbus hollandi, and Squalidus banarescui.

Monday, April 04, 2011

GERMANY, The 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt - February 3, 2011


The German Post has issued a stamp celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the 19th century for his great skill as a performer. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saens, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.